The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Scientists must focus on restoring tsunami-affected farm land'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 13, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Scientists must focus on restoring tsunami-affected farm land'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 12 . The Union Agriculture and Food Minister, Sharad Pawar, yesterday asked agricultural scientists to take up as a research challenge the "early and viable'' restoration of agriculture land that had been devastated by the tsunami waves last month.

Addressing the 43rd convocation of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute here yesterday, Mr. Pawar said the tsunami devastated coastal areas had damaged a large stretch of agriculture land, which had to be restored quickly. "This is a problem for which scientists must come up with early solutions."

Pointing out that agriculture research was at a crossroads, the Minister said the challenge now was not "food security" but "improving farm incomes". He told the scientific community that it needed to reorient its research to make it market-oriented in keeping with domestic and global trends.

"A single-minded approach to increase any productivity without taking into account quality and cost of production would make our produce uncompetitive in the world markets. Together with this, it is important that research is directed towards developing varieties that have a demand in the market. Scientists need to assess market demands and follow it up with a research. Farm research cannot progress in isolation. It has to synergise productivity with the environment aspect,'' he said.

Referring to the post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables (between 20 and 40 per cent) and of pulses, oilseeds and cereals (from 10 to 30 per cent) representing a market value of about Rs. 67,500 crore per annum, Mr. Pawar said research should be focussed on developing varieties that are less susceptible to post-harvest losses and which can be processed. "The National Horticulture Mission launched in July can be a success if research is able to deliver better with quality technical input and stringent market requirements.''

India's share of agricultural trade has to be improved with products meeting international standards in quality and safety. "But with the high cost of production, India's produce does not stand a chance in the global market," the Minister said.

He said researchers should concentrate on developing new varieties of pulses and coarse cereals with new technological input.

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